Page 21 of Given to the Fae (The Dark Realms #3)

‘I said I know!’ Locke hisses. ‘Do you think I wanted to? I had to. You’re too close already and better me than Bere or Kings or Warrior !

You heard what they did to the other two.

’ He shuts his eyes and shakes his head.

‘There’s nothing we can do, my friend. We will meet up with Bere in Merediea.

We will go to the auctions. We will learn what we can.

We will make connections. We will sell her on the way back through.

That is what we must do. It’s the reason we’re here.

If you ever want this to end, sacrifices must be made. ’

‘I know. It’s just. She’s...different.’

Locke snorts. ‘Methinks you should visit a brothel in the next town.’

Morgan snarls his response and stands. ‘Whatever you say.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You forget, I know you as well as you do me. I saw you when you were touching her, saw into your eyes. Admit that she’s not like the others.’

‘No,’ Locke grates out. ‘She’s the same. They’re all deceiving, conniving, backstabbing creatures.’

‘How can you say that? We know enough who aren’t.’

‘They’re different. They’re not slaves.’

I listen with bated breath. They’ve forgotten me completely or they wouldn’t speak so freely!

‘Some of them used to be, Locke.’

‘It’s not the same. They came to us , found us . These humans out here can’t even fathom life without masters.’

Morgan lets out a soft sound of derision.

‘They can’t help it. It’s all they know.

They’re practically bred for traits that make them better slaves and whatever will is left is punished out of them.

There’s something… She tried to save the small one from Bere’s beating yesterday.

She put herself in danger for another of her kind.

You don’t see that much in these realms.’

Locke scoffs. ‘Bell told me that was because Bryn owed her, and Bell wanted Ila safe because she didn’t want to be sold without her, which would have been the case if Bere had killed her.

It’s all transactional to them. Remember what she did the first night.

She didn’t even give Bell a chance to fight, and she hit her so hard she was out for hours, just so she could have a warm place to sleep. ’

Morgan lets out a long breath. ‘Regardless, Warrior will not be left alone with her again. He will not touch her, or I will cut off his fingers.’

‘Fine,’ Locke growls. ‘But you abide by the same rules.’

Locke stands and puts a hand on his friend’s high shoulder. ‘It’s for the best. You see that, don’t you?’

Morgan gives a small nod. ‘But she’s to be kept safe and not made to suffer unduly.’

‘Until she’s sold,’ Locke says very quietly, and Morgan nods, deflating a little.

‘Until she’s sold,’ he echoes.

He turns away only to turn back again. ‘When you…released her...’

‘What about it?’

‘You used a conjure on her, didn’t you.’

‘Only to calm her. She was...afraid.’

‘Of the block?’

‘Of that and of being touched there .’

Morgan’s hands ball into fists and he lurches to his feet.

He stalks off into the night, leaving me with Locke.

I don’t look at him. I pretend to be half asleep but my mind is in turmoil as I try to make sense of everything they said during their unguarded conversation.

They’ve joined with Bere for a reason, and it’s not to make coin from selling slaves.

They know humans. Free ones. There’s only one place where humans are free.

I can only draw one conclusion, and it makes my heart beat like a drum, for once in excitement, not fear.

Somehow, they’re from the Light Realm!

Jak

Finding meat with Warrior is successful, if not a little sickening.

The fae hunter has got two rabbits and one grouse.

He shot arrows through the rabbit’s hind legs and then held them up by the shafts, shaking them a little.

He grinned as he watched them squirm, listening to their squeals of pain and fear before he tied them to a pole and swung it over his shoulder.

The bird he shot through one wing and then flung it over with the other twitching beasts while it fluttered and squawked, laughing a little at its suffering.

Morgan, though I’d consider him a friend, is half insane. He’s feared by many of the others at the Camp. There are times when even I’m afraid of him a little. But he’s nothing like this barmy cunt.

And the human was left with him all day.

As we walk back to the fire, listening to the occasional flap, or rabbit scream, I can’t help but wonder if he gave in to his baser urges with Bryn. We were close by all day, and I didn’t hear her make any sounds of pain, but she did seem more than a little subdued by the time we made camp.

I wasn’t going to interfere. In fact, we were intending on letting Warrior have the primary duty of taking care of the human so that we could spend some time talking about the mission and making plans.

We all knew Warrior was a few barrels short of a brewery, but I don’t think the others realize how unhinged he is.

It’s bad enough what we’re being forced to do, but to leave a helpless girl in the hands of this monster when it isn’t necessary. ..

I decide I’m going to speak to Locke as soon as I’m able. There are ways we can talk without Warrior finding out our secrets, especially once we reach the next town.

When we get back to the fire, Warrior pauses mid-stride, his eyes on the girl. She’s by the fire with a blanket around her now. His eyes narrow and he sneers.

‘Shall I release her this evening?’ he asks, not even looking at Locke. ‘I don’t mind doing it. A happy human is a hearty human, after all.’

Knowing he can’t see my face, I grimace at the line he uses, the one that I’ve heard so many times.

‘No need,’ Locke says, without hesitation. ‘I did it quickly while you were hunting.’

‘She’s so loud, surely we’d have heard her screams,’ Warrior quips.

The girl curls into herself, hiding beneath the blanket.

Locke chuckles. ‘I made sure she was quieter this time. I didn’t want the game to get scared off.’

‘I’ll do it tomorrow, then.’

‘Perhaps,’ is all Locke says before taking a long draw from his wineskin.

If Warrior doesn’t like the answer, he doesn’t show it, but he makes a point, I notice, of letting the girl see the half dead animals he’s brought.

She looks at them and him in unconcealed distaste as he throws them down beside her. ‘Kill them. Pluck them. Skin them.’

‘Yes, my lord,’ she says quietly.

He throws one of those jeweled knives down as well, and it clatters to the ground.

I catch Locke’s eye. He nods, standing up with a stretch and yawn and mumbling something about needing a piss.

The girl slits the rabbits’ throats and wrings the grouse’s neck as quickly as she can, letting out a small sigh when their sufferings are at an end.

I leave her to do what Warrior told her when Morgan appears out of the tall grass.

I walk in the opposite direction to Locke until I’m far enough from the camp that Warrior won’t hear us.

‘What is it?’ Locke whispers from behind me.

I turn with a roll of my eyes. ‘Warrior. He’s more deranged than he seemed when we were with the others. I believe Bere keeps him in line. Without his leader... I don’t think we should leave the female alone with him again.’

I expect him to scoff, to tell me I should be thinking more about our mission and less about this one human girl who’s not important in the least to us, so the nod he gives me in response surprises me.

‘She’ll ride with you tomorrow. We’ll spend two nights at the next stop. It’s a decent town. Take him out to a brothel with you and leave him there. Quietly drug him if you must, to keep him away for a few hours. We’ll talk properly then.’

‘What of the girl?’ I ask.

‘Leave her to me.’

I nod and go back to camp. By the time I’ve returned, the girl has already skinned one of the rabbits and is plucking the grouse. Warrior’s eyes don’t leave her and there’s a bright fervor in them that puts me on edge. He looks at her as if he’s a child who’s been given a new toy.

I unroll my blankets close to her, and very much between her’s and Warrior’s. If he notices, he pretends he doesn’t, and soon Locke comes back and we all bed down.

The night passes quickly. I wake a few times, which is typical for me, and each time all is quiet.

There are no odd noises or movements, but I didn’t expect there to be.

This world seems to be one of the quieter ones when it comes to Dark Realm creatures, outside the bogs anyway, and we’ll be sticking to the road, so those won’t be a problem.

The sun rises early, and I’m the first one awake.

The girl sleeps peacefully by the fire with her head resting on her arm to keep it out of the dirt.

She doesn’t even have a bedroll, I realize with a pang of conscience.

She’s wrapped herself in the one blanket she has, her dirty bare feet sticking out of the bottom close to the fire.

The animal carcasses she prepared last evening are close by and wrapped in the conjured cloth that keeps them fresh.

It also somehow deters any predators that might be lured in by the smell, so Locke says.

I gut the grouse on a flat stone with my knife and then skewer the rabbits, putting everything over the hot fire to roast before everyone wakes.

I hear Locke getting up and wandering off to piss. Warrior rises next, and mutters something I don’t catch. He leaves the camp as well with a myriad of weapons, so I can only assume he wants to torture and kill something.

Disturbed cunt.

Locke returns to the fire a moment later and glances around. ‘Warrior?’

‘I think he went to hunt,’ I say with a shrug.

Locke’s assessing eyes fall on the human. She’s waking slowly. I hear her yawn quietly, as if not wanting to draw attention to herself, and she shuffles into a sitting position, looking bleary eyed.

‘Meat ready?’ Morgan asks, forever hungry.

‘Grouse is,’ I answer.